Cicero and Lucretius

Transcript (PDF)

Alexandria and Rome
Presentation 4 of 14

Cicero and Lucretius
Metropolitan Consolidation of the Roman Mind
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, July 22, 1982

Transcript:

It's very difficult to follow the train of events that the lecture tonight emphasizes mainly because it was not even understood at the time that the events were happening. So, I'll try to give some basic form and shape rather as a sketcher would do, rather than a sculptor, by truncating certain events and leaving out certain characters. The details of which are valuable and important in understanding the fullness of the direction. But we're dealing here with an event known as a landslide of history, where are the accrual of energies and purposes simply outstripped anyone's capacity to understand what was happening. It doesn't happen very often in human history. It happened in Rome and the 1st century B.C.

To set the background, let's recall the fact that Rome had jumped forward in the second Punic War under the mystical Generalship of Scipio Africanus to a position unrivaled in the world of about 200 B.C. There was a lot of hay made out of the fact that Africanus had somehow been privy to the energies, which Alexander the Great had drawn to himself. And Africanus in his own individual self had never discouraged openly indefinitely this kind of speculation. The fearfulness on the part of opponents to this kind of world Empire demagoguery, however well deserved it was from an individual. However well-worn it might appear in the hands of a distinguished individual like Publius Cornelius Scipio.

There were those basic Republican individuals at Rome who shuttered with fear and terror at the idea of a Roman becoming a universal man. This notion of the God man was a Greek notion. It was at home in the Greek world. It could very easily be transported from Athens to Alexandria without raising a whisper among the populations of either the Egyptian or the Greeks. But to have the notion of a God man in terms of the old Republican agrarian matrix that was the Roman people, this seemed to be a sacrilegious affront upon propriety.

And so great as he was Scipio Africanus was charged indirectly by certain elements in the Roman court. The way they did it, as they said that his brother had to help back sums of money from the booty that was to be deposited in Rome and that he must account for these things. And the aged Scipio Africanus putting on his best Toga and he has great Republican Generals expression took the account books into the Senate of Rome and tore them to shreds in front of the entire Senate. And left with the great imperious dignity that he had. And the case was eventually dropped. His brother was made to pay some certain sums in a more discreet fashion. But a sound had been nell in the Senate of Rome that left reverberations. And the spirit of the Roman people began to be raised to the level to where they would have to find themselves, as this country is finding itself late in this century, on that razor edge where responsibility and power almost call out for themselves to be extended to include all the parenthetical context that might arise in the future. And this extension is called Empire.

The next generation of Romans from Scipio Africanus managed to, with the problems they had, to balance themselves until the third Punic War. And the grandson of Scipio Africanus, Scipio Aemilianus began having tremendous visions of his grandfather’s spirit coming back to him. And he had collected around himself a group of companions, two of which were most distinguished thinkers of his day. One the great historian Polybius, a Greek. And the other, a great stoic philosopher Panaetius. And Polybius and Panaetius are two of the greatest Greek thinkers of their day. And they were companions to this grandson of Scipio Africanus named Scipio Aemilianus.

And it fell to Aemilianus’ to prosecute the third and final Punic War. And he found himself no longer able to shape war in a gentlemanly way. And the upshot of it was that Carthage was defeated and the city of Carthage was effaced from the Earth. Every building, every foundation stone was dug up and thrown into the sea. The ground was plowed with salt and the wasted ruin that still exists was engendered. This was 146 B.C. And the great historian Polybius was on the spot, saw the siege, saw the destruction. The great stoic philosopher Panaetius also saw. And then in the same year the same process was applied in Greece. And several smaller cities suffered the same fate. And what it was was the stamp of the Roman period for the first time of not just no prisoners, but no more reality for these competitors ever on the stage of history again.

So that they challenge spiritually for the Roman mind had entered into a nightmarish quandary that they had engendered in themselves. power and authority and extension of themselves almost beyond the limits of their control. And that next generation from Scipio Aemilianus to Cicero, who we are to look at tonight, battled within themselves as individuals more than with others. And the Roman state began to reflect back in upon itself in internal domestic strife more than the challenges that would come from the outside.

So that Cicero being born in 106 B.C., when he was in his twenties, we find the spectacle of a Roman General Sulla taking his armies and marching out in Rome and destroying the entire constitution and writing a new one. with all of his troops camped along the sacred way on the Palatine Hill and the Capitoline Hill and the Aventine. And this spectacle of Rome going before a hundred years from foreign council tearing up the records of one campaign to another council coming in and destroying the entire constitution of the Roman people. 100 years.

What was the name of that General?

Sulla. So, this happened about 80BC, 82 B.C.

Cicero and Julius Caesar were almost contemporaries. Pompey. All of them born within a few years of each other. Cicero 106 B.C. Pompey 106. Julius Caesar 102. They knew each other as youngsters.
Cicero’s father had moved to Rome and on the [inaudible] way had found the house. Cicero had a brother somewhat younger than him, a couple of years younger. And so, the two boys were raised right in the center of cosmopolitan Rome. When Cicero was quite a young man, still a teenager, he took part as an advisor and as a young aide to camp for Pompey’s father. And there met the Pompey. He had known Caesar as a young man in Rome.

And it was apparent to Cicero that he, his constitution, his own individual self, his character was really not that of a General. He wanted very much to be in the limelight of history. He was that kind of an individual. And for him the central moving arm of history was encapsulated in the Latin [inaudible]. So that Cicero began to think of himself as someone who would position his expectations for fame in the arena of language, rather than in the military arena. And commensurate with that he sought to improve himself and train himself much like an actor today will go around and take voice lessons and diction lessons and posture and delivery, and the whole range of facilitates.

So, Cicero devoting himself as a young man found at a opportune juncture. I think he was 26 or 27. He got involved in a trial in which he had to condemn a very close friend of this same Sulla, the General who had dismembered the constitution of Rome. Whose power was a paramount in Rome. And Cicero and a very, very famous trial managed to win the case and disguise in his assertions all the way through any real damaging statements about Sulla. Managing by wonderful tricks of language. Latin at the level of Cicero is a very articulate language. And won the case but then decided that he had better take a small vacation from Rome and left for two years. He came back after Sulla died.

Where would he go? Well, a man like this desiring the best in terms of [inaudible] went to Greece and spent some time there in Greece. And then had word of great teacher who lived on the Island of Rhodes, the city of Rhodes. And spent a year studying under one of the most remarkable men of Cicero's time. An intellectual giant. Somebody who was on the par with Aristotle, but whose works have been lost to us.
And we have just a few handfuls of fragments. So, one hardly ever hears about Posidonius. But Posidonius was in antiquity the most learned man of his time. He was a traditionally assigned now as a stoic, a member of the middle stone. The old stoics back in the 4th century B.C. And now we're up to the 1st-2nd century B.C. Posidonius born about 135. Died about 50 B.C. Lived about 85 years. Posidonius the most learned man of his time numbered among his works a universal history, which extended Polybius’ history, which only went down to 146 B.C. Polybius stopped his history when he saw what had happened with his favorite protagonists. He realized that he was not the man with his Greek mind and imagination understanding what had happened to extend his history beyond the destruction wholesale of Carthage.

So Posidonius had written in antiquity in 52 books a history of Rome from 146 B.C. down to the time of Sulla and his destruction of the Roman constitution. So that had we Posidonius’ great history we would have displayed before us that century in which the mind of Rome changed from a skittish terribleness to a nightmarish aggressiveness.

Another volume that we miss with Posidonius is his great volume on universal philosophy because Posidonius managed to integrate in his vast learning, examining all the various facets and intelligence and investigation. Much like Aristotle going back to the basic sciences, biology investigation, physics, geography. He gathered reports from all over the known world, sifted them, catalog them. Consulted with the great Sabans of Alexandria. And pieced together a tremendous universal philosophy.

And the essential structure of the philosophy of Posidonius is that all of reality is an organic whole. And that in the, in organic elements of nature the unity that holds together physical natural reality transforms itself in organic nature into a living structure. So that there is in the crystalline world in organic nature a certain structure which flames into life and becomes a vital organizing energy. That as it penetrates through the various levels of animal, man and Gods organizes in a durational ongoing unified way all of reality. And that the only way in which man may see this happening is to correlate his investigations of nature with his investigations of history, with his investigations of mathematics. And there looking through these overlapped templates may discover the unity of process and structure throughout the entire realm of manifestation. Well, now this is somebody. And Cicero studied under Posidonius for at least a year.

And I think I should give you a few ruins here on Posidonius from the Oxford classical dictionary. Just so you realize that it's not mind spinning out of this tremendous capacity of an unknown. We rarely hear of individuals like this. I was over at USC today and they didn't have a single course on classics for the summer. So, even the greats like Plato and Aristotle are [inaudible] in our time.
According to Posidonius the end and destiny of the human race is exactly reflected in the vicissitudes of history. Political virtue therefore consists in turning humanity back to its state of prehistoric innocence in which philosophers were the law givers and instructors of their fellow men and acted as intermediaries between the world of matter in which men are compelled to live. And the world of God, from which alone law-abiding morality can spring. Thus, politics and ethics are one. And any form of moral or political activity becomes a religious duty. By fulfilling which man frees himself and acquires knowledge of the gifts of the spirit, which enabled him to enjoy a superior form of existence after death.

So, after hearing this firsthand [inaudible] great expectation for a year or two Cicero returned to Rome. And his whole idea of the responsibilities of man with language in history were raised from the expectation of mere fame to the expectation that he would make his saged destiny as an individual for himself, and if need be, for his country. Not just in terms of the Roman Republic but in terms of this great understanding of the world history coming to a cosmopolitan universal phase. So that Cicero traditionally has been called the watchdog of the Republic, but he is also the harbinger of the world. The one world. The universal world. Where a man as a species lives in total in total harmony.

I'm sorry to have to truncate all of these grand ideas and philosophies. But you can see at least there's enough here for you to investigate and fill in the details for yourself.
Now, this, this development. This raising of the sights of young Cicero stood him in good stead. When he returned to Rome about 76 B.C., he took a wife Terenia. He became very, very quickly one of the finest what we would call lawyers at Rome. He almost always took the defense. Very, very rarely that he would take the prosecution. But his ambition had been flamed into a universal crusading level. And add that on to his knowledge of history, his realization of the past and you begin to see some very, very interesting developments in Cicero's life.

And in fact, just to tack this point down, just to bring it through to you, the extraordinary aptness of this pattern of development. One of the most famous works of Cicero which survives is called Somnium Scipionis, The Dream of Scipio. In which Cicero relates that he had this enormous [inaudible] of Scipio Aemilianus coming to him and taking him, Cicero, up to the [inaudible] level of the stars and looking upon not just the Roman Empire, but the Earth and all of the celestial bodies. And saying that this purpose, this universal purpose, extends even beyond the planet. And the Somnium Scipionis, even though it's just seven or eight pages, is one of the great documents of classical antiquity. We have it because it was embedded in a book called Macrobius Commentary on The Dream of Scipio. And had it not been for Macrobius we might not have had the dream itself.

A few words from that expert. Cicero relates, “After we parted through the night, I fell into a deep slumber. Sounder than usual because of my long journey and the late hour of retirement. I dreamt that Africanus was standing before.” Now, this is not the original Scipio Africanus, but his grandson who had the same appellation. He also conquered Africa.

“I dreamt that Africanus was standing before me. And believe our discussion must have been responsible for this for it frequently happens that our thoughts and conversations react upon us in dreams. Somewhat in the matter of an Ennius”. Ennius was an early Roman poet,
who referred in experiences about Homer of whom he used to think and speak very often in his waking hours. My grandfather's appearance was better known to me from his [inaudible] mask than from my memories of him. Upon recognizing him I shuttered, but he reproved my fears and bade me to pay close attention to his words. Do you see that [inaudible] which I compelled to be obedient to the Roman people, but which is now renewing earlier strife and is unable to remain at peace. From our lofty perch, dazzling and glorious set among the radiant stars he pointed out Carthage. [inaudible] you have now come ranking not much higher than the private soldier. Two years hence as counsel you will conquer it. [inaudible] winning for yourself the cognomen, which until now you had had as an inheritance from me.

And so, Cicero goes on. And in the relation of the dream, he begins to veer away from mere happenings on the stage of history to an outline of cosmic hierarchy which is a presage of the cosmic view. And a hierarchy that Claudius Ptolemy would lay down some three or 400 years later. So that we've have really a view of the Ptolemaic universe with the Earth unmoved at the center and the lunar levels and then the planets all the way up, including the sun among the planets between Venus and Mars to Saturn and then the level of the stars beyond.

So that we have a very curious development that the intuition of some great cycle, of some great pattern of time, had reached a fullness and had come full around so that there is an impending moment of eternity are intruding itself into a temporalized situation. And from the viewpoint of someone like Cicero being born in 106 B.C. and dying in 43 B.C., December 7th, which conditions will soon here. You had looked from that viewpoint as if the culmination were in fact, what had been suspected since the time of Polybius and Panaetius that Rome was the natural inevitable fruition of the meaning and patterns of the entire ancient world. And that Rome as a phenomenon was destined to complete and fulfill the entirety of history. And that that time had arrived in the generation of Cicero and Caesar and Pompey and Mark Anthony.

And so, they felt themselves perched literally up among the final stars of human destiny. And this fact cannot be stressed too much. This fact, this awareness, this consciousness began to [inaudible] psychologically on these persons, especially those I've just named because they were up on the moving pinnacle history exposed. And so, a lot of the vacillation that all of them display are really what we would call today neurotic tendencies of psychological breakdown. And time and time again, as you review the events that led up to the death of Cicero and the death of Caesar and the death of Pompey, the death of Mark Anthony. They all were ground up by the same circumstance.

The only insight that we have to the dismembering and disability of the psychological pressure are The Letters of Cicero [Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero]. It's the only thermometer in the mouth of this storm that we have. And fortunately, we have about 800 letters from Cicero. And it's in The Letters of Cicero that we find the slow awareness and then finally stated that some enormous combine of events has come home to roost in Rome in the city itself. And that all the frayed edges of history had literally been dumped on the floor of the Senate. And the Senate had become rather like Shakespeare’s stage the only place in all the world that anyone could do something effectively. And it was completely out of anyone's hands individually. Finally. Ultimately.

And so, they were driven to the last remaining hope that somehow some combination of them, what form on alliance that you'd see them through. And so, we find more and more this searching out for who can we be with to be safe. What combination of us will survive these catastrophic, horrendous situations that obviously have been foretold for centuries and seen for decades. And we've lived them for years and now they're here. Who can we trust? And it's in The Letters of Cicero that we find these recorded most eloquently real.

How are we doing that time?

We have about 20 minutes?

20 minutes? [inaudible] I’ll, I'll zero in on this.

Half of the remaining Letters of Cicero over 400 of them are to one man. His friend Atticus, who lived in Greece. So that we have not only one individual recording literally day by day, sometimes two or three letters a day and year by year for 22 years previous to the events where everything became completely unraveled. An account to one other man, a great confidant of Cicero. So that in The Letters to Atticus, we find perhaps the only kind of history that could ever be written about the scale of the tragedy that happened. All that we have are about 430 letters like fragments thrown out from the most sophisticated master of language of his time to the closest friend that he had. And it's through reading these letters and intuiting and piecing together the context in which they occur, that we finally come to the point to where we understand what had happened. And can appreciate the magnitude of the courage of all of the individuals involved. No longer concerned with good guys or bad guys. They were all human beings attempting to survive what seemed to them at the time increasingly and an evitable slide into oblivion.

The first, I've made a selection here of excerpts all the way through. I'll see what we can do with this. The first selection, just a paragraph. I've chosen paragraphs from about 20 letters that will give us the whole movement here. This first letter, it's the second in the collection that comes from the 23rd of November, 68 A.D. Cicero writes,
That is about all I have to tell you, if you succeed in finding any objects of art suitable for a lecture hall, which would do for you know where, I hope you won't let them slip. I am delighted with my place at Tuscaloo…Tusculum. So much so that I feel content with myself when and only when I get there. Let me know in full detail about everything you are doing and intending to do.
So they began with young man, 28 years old, to a dear friend about buying some objects of art for his new place. He's going to do set up a [inaudible]. He's going to have a place in the country. And he was retired too from Rome, and he's going to teach.

The next one is from the 10th letter here. And it's from a few years later, the 17th of July 65 A.D. And Cicero is about to become a candidate for the highest office in the Roman state. That of council. And this is 65 A.D. His competition at the time included any sort of a nondescript man famous at the time, Antinous. And one of the arch villians of history, a man named [inaudible].


Cicero writes to Atticus,
A position as regards my candidature in which I know you are deeply interested is as follows. So far as can be foreseen up to date only a certain [inaudible] is canvassing. That he is getting for an answer, a good Roman, a good old Roman no, plain and unvarnished. It is generally thought that this premature canvas of his has rather helped my prospects for people are commonly refusing him on the ground that they are obliged to me. So, I hope to draw some advantage when the word goes round for a great many friends of mine are coming to light. I was thinking of starting my canvas just when [inaudible] says, your boy will leave with this letter, the 17th of July.
And in this there's an interesting man mentioned here of the present candidates a certain Caesar is also regarded and the other, and the other Antinous. Now Catiline was one of these swab wealthy men who was a patrician by long [inaudible] standing. He was a tall sort of powerful, aggressive individual. Somewhat given to violent sensuous passions. And he regarded Cicero as a throwaway candidate because Cicero wasn't Novus homo. That is a new man. He did not come from a long patrician line. He was someone who came from the old equestrian ranks from the countryside. In other words, he might be talented with language, but he has no lineage.

So, Catiline in 65 B.C. began to try as a way of getting this office to force his way into office by making it seem that he was really a force to be reckoned with. And you'd better put me into the regular flow of power, or I might be hard to handle. In other words, he began to move his shoulders and muscle around as if he might be willing to step outside the law if they didn't include him within the law as a council. This particular design backfired on him. And a certain letter was brought in and read before the Senate. And Cicero made a wonderful oration before the Senate. We still have it. And it bears in Latin and a title like In the Candidates Robe Straight Appeal to the Scent of Rome. And in this appeal, Cicero made the case that actually what Catiline was doing was trying to threaten the Senate of Rome with a conspiracy to take over the country. And that he was obviously a man not suited for office, especially for the councilor office. And this oration happened the day before the elections. And of course, stock in Cicero went up. He got the most votes, became a council. Antinous came in second and Catiline lost. And this stung him. This elegant country bumpkin had taken away his candy. So Catiline began to plan in his mind a real takeover. And it was in 63 B.C., two years later, that when Cicero was in fact placed into the council office, that Catiline began to rule in the great conspiracy, it's actually the second conspiracy, to murder Cicero and to murder about half the Senate of Rome. And to appear at the moment that these murders were being carried out with a great force and to assure them that with Catiline all order would be reinstated, and Rome would be safe.

This of course was brought to the attention of Cicero by one of the young ladies that Catiline had used and then thrown aside. And the certain [inaudible] appeared late at night at Cicero’s house with condemning letters. And Cicero armed with these letters sent out messengers and convened a great midnight conference in the senate of Rome. Where by torchlight with his great eloquence in his pajamas, he assured them that Rome was safe with him. And the great watchdog of Rome was on the move. And this tremendous to truncate the situation, this tremendous midnight revelation forced the hand of Catiline. He was banished from Rome and later on, he would be defeated by the councilor armies of Antinous. He had raised some 20,000 men, but by 63 B.C., that was nothing.

And in Rome, Cicero made sure that the co-conspirators that could be grabbed including some very high military leaders and 12 senators were promptly tried and executed. And in this great torchlight parade, Cicero brought himself to the Senate of Rome and had one of the great triumphs of his life. And, and this was in the final days of his councilor office.

This was the way in which Plutarch in [inaudible] translation puts it.
And furthermore, to let him that he should not speak unto the people they did set the benches upon the pulpit for orations, which they call at Rome Rostra. Rostra. And would never suffice him to set foot in it if only to he granted [inaudible]. And went up to the pulpit upon that condition. So, silence being made him, he made an oath not like unto other councils. Or those when they resigned their office in like manners that strange. Or never heard of before swearing that he had saved the city of Rome and preserved all his country and the Empire of Rome from utter ruin and destruction. And all the people that were present confirmed it and swore like oath.
And a little note here, the next sentence. And Plutarch's giving a foreboding of things to come, will recall Caesar and the other tribunes were so offended with him that they devised to breed him some new star [inaudible]. So that Catiline was taken care of in 63.

And one of the powers behind Cicero at that time was the great general Pompey who was in the East. Who had just finished up a great war against Mithridates, an [inaudible] Emperor who had in fact had pushed Romans and the Italians completely out of Asia minor. Out of what is today Turkey. Had in fact issued a massacre notices so that 70 or 80,000 Italian Roman colonists throughout the Greek Asia minor coast world had been slaughtered and killed. Pompey being one of the great Generals of all time had won this war against Mithridates and had accrued as a part of his conquest, the enormous treasure of Mithridates. One of the largest booties ever brought back to Rome. And it was the understanding that Pompey and Cicero were good buddies and good friends that kept the situation from deteriorating at Rome in 63 B.C.- 62 B.C. Because it was always remembered that Julius Caesar was a part of the Catiline conspiracy.

We have a letter here from Cicero to Atticus. And this is dated the 25th of January 61 B.C. That is shortly after all these events that happened. Within 35 days or so of all these wonderful events.
Since you left me there are things that well deserve a letter of mine, but I must not expose such to the risk of getting lost or opened or intercepted. The walls have ears in Rome. First then you may care to know that I have not been given first voice in the Senate. The pacifier of the [inaudible] being put in front of me at which the house murmured, but I myself was not sorry. I am.
That means that the other council was made the first voice. Princeps Senatus. The first voice. The Senate.



“The house murmured at this.” In other words, Cicero should have had the honor.
but I myself was not sorry. I am thereby relieved of any obligation to be civil to a cross grained individual and left free to maintain my political standing in opposition to his wishes. Moreover, the second place carries almost as much prestige as the first. While one's inclinations are not too much better by one sense of the counselor favor.
And he goes on.

The next letter, the 13th of February 61 B.C. He writes, “I have already given you a description of Pompey’s first public speech.” He'd come back to Rome. “No comfort to the poor or interest to the rascals. On the other hand, the rich were not pleased. And the honest men were not edified. So,” dash “a frost.” Meaning nothing. Everyone was unimpressed. He was not an orator. Pompey. “Then an irresponsible tribute. Fufius egged on by council [inaudible] called Pompei out to address the assembling. This took place in the Flaminian circus.” The Flaminian way was the great North Road out of Rome. And the, there was a circus there, not the circus Maximus hear the Forum, but on the Flaminian way in the Northern part of Rome. It's downtown today.

“On market day, just where the holiday crowd was gathered [inaudible] asked him whether he thought it right for a jury to be selected by a [inaudible]” That is a judge,
to serve under the same [inaudible] presidency. That being the procedure determined by the Senate in the Claudia sacrilege case. Pompey then replied very much as a good aristocrat that in all matters he held and had always held the Senate’s authority in the highest respect at considerable length too.
And he goes on with that.

And the next letter that I've selected out here. And I think I'll have to skip a few here so that we don't lose our time. This one, January 20th, 60. By now we've had a year and conditions to not become settled. And as the dust began to settle, people could see that the anxiety level was rising. Cicero writes to Atticus,
I must tell you that what I need most badly at the present time is a confidant. Someone with whom I could share all that gives me any anxiety. A wise affectionate friend to whom I could talk without pretense or evasion or concealment. My brother, the soul of candor and affection is a way. It's not a person at all. Only seashore and air and mere solitude. And you, who's talking to advice has so often lightened my worry and vexation of spirit. The partner in my public life and intimate of all my private concerns. The sharer of all my talk and plans. Where are you? I am so utterly forsaken that my only moments of relaxation are those that I spend with my wife, my little daughter and my darling Marcus,
His son,
My brilliant worldly friendships may make a fine show in public, but in the home, they are barren things. My house is crammed of a morning. I go down to the forums, surrounded by droves of friends. But in all of them, all the two, I cannot find one with whom I can pass an unguarded joke or fetch a private sigh.
This is 60 B.C. 20th of January

His next one, a few months later, March 15th 60 B.C.
Home affairs stand thus, Tribune Flavius is vigorously pushing his agrarian law with Pompey’s backing. There's nothing popular about it, except the mover. With the approval of an assembly, I advocated the deletion from the bill of all provisions detrimental to private interest. I was for releasing from its operation such land as was in state ownership.
And he goes on.

And the point of the letter is that by now the situation has become complicated by the fact that almost all of the powerful individuals in Rome were in deep debt. There were exceptions like Caesar and Pompey who were Generals who could conquer other peoples and pocket some of their booty. But the sudden growth and far-flung ambitions of the powerful Romans, especially those in the Senate, had ended up by making all of them so far in debt that their quandary about political power was becoming confused about who owed what to whom. And these situations began to work upon them.

I'm going to skip over a few here so that I can work in the time. This next one. This is about 10 years later, March 12th 49 B.C. This is a letter from Julius Caesar. Caesar Imperio to Cicero Imperio.
Though I have only just seen our friend Furnius and could neither speak nor listen to him at leisure since I am in haste and on the march with my army already sent ahead. Yet I could not neglect to write to you and to send him and to express my thanks. Though that I have often done and expect to do oftener. You give me so much cause. Especially I ask of you since I have every hope of getting to Rome in the near future to let me see you there so that I may be able to avail myself of your advice, influence, standing and help in all matters. To return to my point you must forgive my haste and the brevity of this letter. You will learn all else from Furnius.
Typical directness of Caesar's writing. You get the cast that Cicero was somewhat of a nervous individual, highly literate, but always putting parenthetical phrases in the midst of a statement. Contrast to that Caesar's cold, calculating excellence. Everything in its order. Every last block. And the keystone he had back here. That sort of personality.

The next letter from the next year from [inaudible] on the Italian coast. The 17th of December 48 B.C.
Many thanks for your letter in which you have set down in detail everything you thought concerned me. Very well, I shall do as you say that they think best. I.e. that I should keep the same lictor as I now have. The concession made you say to [inaudible]. I suppose he was not allowed to keep his own lictors.
These are men who carry the signs of office,
but given them by Caesar. For a year that Caesar does not recognize senatorial decrees passed after the departure of the tribunes. Therefore, if he wants to be consistent, he will be able to authorize my lictors. But what am I doing to be writing about lictors when I have almost been ordered out of Italy. Anthony,
Mark Anthony,
has sent me a copy of a letter from Caesar to himself in which Caesar says that he has heard that Cato and [inaudible] have returned to Italy intending to live openly in Rome. That he does not approve of this and [inaudible] with the risk of disturbances resulting. And that all persons are barred from Italy; except those whose cases he has personally reviewed. He expressed himself pretty strongly on that point.
You can bet he did. “So, Anthony wrote asking me to excuse him. He had no choice but to obey the letter.” And he goes on from there.

I think perhaps at this time maybe we should take a little break, and we'll pick up with this after our tea. But you can see that by now the situation has changed. Someone's making a play to take over. Caesar.

I guess, just to underscore the developing theme tonight, I'll look ahead 15 minutes to give you a quotation to begin the second half. This is a quotation from Lucretius De Rerum Natura, The Nature of the Universe. The treatise on cosmology. But listen to the language that he has.
This dread and darkness of the mind cannot be dispelled by the sunbeams, the shafts of day. But only by an understanding of the outward form and inner workings of nature. And tackling this theme our starting point will be this principle. Nothing can ever be created by divine power out of nothing. The reason why all mortals are so gripped by fear is that they see all sorts of things happening on the Earth and in the sky with no discernible cause. And these, they attribute to the will of God.

This was written at the same time, as The Letters of Cicero. Men's minds are filled with fear that the [inaudible] cannot dispel. Only a comprehensive conception of the outward form and the inner workings will save man’s mind.

Well, let's return to the schedule of letters. We left off in 48 B.C. [inaudible] in 46 B.C. It's an uncertain date. May or June 46 B.C. Cicero writing a little lighter to Atticus.
If there is one person in the world, less prone to blarney than I think it is you. Or if either of us ever flatters a third party, at least we never flatter one another. So, listen to what I tell you. May I die, my dear Atticus, if I consider, I won't say Tusculum, where otherwise I find things pleasant enough. But the islands of the blessed worth separation from you all day long. Well, for these three days, we must grin and bear it. To assume that you are similarly affected as of course you are. But I should like to know whether you are leaving today immediately after the auction. And re-update you aren't coming. Meanwhile, I employ myself with my books. It's a nuisance that I don't have [inaudible] history. However, not to admit business altogether that debt assigned me by Caesar can be handled in three ways. Purchase at the sale. I would rather lose the money though. In fact, apart from the discredit involved, I think that's just what this would amount to. To transfer of the debt to me for payment by the purchaser at year hence, whom could I trust? And when will that [inaudible] year arrive. At three a half payment on [inaudible] terms. Think it over then. But I'm afraid your friend won't now hold the auction after all. And that when his games are over, he'll hurry to the assistance of our mumbler.
And so on.

So, events are attenuating in Rome.

The next letter that I selected out comes from the next year. About a year later. June of 45 B.C. This is written up from Rome, but from Cicero's estate, Tusculum. He mentions in here Tyro. Tyro was one of his secretaries. Tyro lived to be over a hundred years old and survived a lot of these events. And the preservation of many of Cicero's letters are due to the fact that Tyro as an individual simply outlived the events. The crunch of them. And found copies of the letter, had copies collected and made a collection of them.
Let me go into descript…I was going to mention something here, but I'll let it pass.

I am waiting to hear from you if there was any news about Brutus. Brutus. [inaudible] to be sure thought the matter settled. It says the divorce is not popular. That makes me all the more anxious on the same score as yourself. If there is any adverse reaction this might put it right. I must go to our Arpino.
He was born in our Arpino.

“My little properties there need my attention. And I am afraid I may not be able to get away once Caesar comes home. Dolabella,” who was her council, the head gentlemen for that year. “Dolabella holds the same opinion about the date of his return as you deduced from Maselli’s letter. When I get there and see what there is to do, I shall let you know approximately when I shall be coming back.”

There is uncertainty as to the date of the return of the dictator Caesar. His plans have been kept to himself. There is a triumvirate. The first triumvirate of Crassus, Pompey and Caesar had fallen somewhat apart. Crassus was killed in Asia. He was one of the richest men in Rome, but an inept General in many ways. Pompey who challenged Caesar at a battle known as Pharsalus lost. Caesar was one of the greatest Generals of the ancient world. Pompey fled, hoping to find some place in the Roman world on the edge of it, where he could reconnoiter his power and his troops. So, he went to Alexandria. And when he stepped off the ship, he was met by a knife in the ribs by one of the Hellenistic Roman Generals and Alexandria seeking to curry favor with Caesar. And that left Caesar alone. Almost alone. There was still a Cicero. There was still the watchdog of the Republic. There was still in fact that even though we have no armies, and even though his allies had been killed off one after another, there was still Marcus Tullius Cicero with his language, his understanding, his humanity. There was still Cicero.

The next letter written the next day, June 45 B.C.
Little wonder, you are shocked by the news about Marcellus and see new causes for alarm. What could, who could have feared anything so unprecedented. So apparently outside the course of nature. Clearly, we are safe from nothing. But you make a historical slip. You of all people when you speak of me as the last surviving council.
That is so many noble Romans had been killed off that Cicero points out to his friend that there is one other besides himself who had held a council ate position before Caesar. So that what we have as a reflection here in his letter to Atticus. Within the realm of being discreet of saying, well, I'm not the last surviving man of the Republic. Isn't there one other? What do you call [inaudible]?

“Not of course that this is any importance. Especially to me to whom the dead seem no worse off than the living. What are we after all or what can we be at home or abroad? If it had not occurred to me to write these books of mine, such as they are, I should not know what to do with myself.” He’s saying that this is the curtain call for the Republic. He's not the only man left. There’s some other man someplace else, but it really isn't that important. What about the living and the dead? How important is it? And after all he has his books and these really have been his source for living.

Then this sentence, “If Brutus takes any step, be sure to let me know. I think he ought not to lose any time. Especially if he has made up his mind. He will extinguish or damp down all the tittle tattle. Some of which has reached even my ears. But he will be the best judge, especially if he talks to you about it.”

And the next letter is from 7th of April 44, B.C. in Rome.
I have broken my journey at the house of the person of whom we were talking this morning. Utterly deplorable. According to him, our problems are insoluble. For if a man of Caesar's genius could find no way out who will find one now. In short, he said, Rome is finished. I am inclined to agree. But he said it with such relish and declared that the Gauls will be up here within three weeks. He told me that since the ides of march, he has talked to nobody except [inaudible]. The [inaudible] opinion is that it cannot all just pass off quietly. Wise [inaudible]. He regrets Caesar no less, but he says nothing, which any honest man could take amiss. But enough of this.
Caesar was stabbed by many friends of Cicero calling out his name three weeks before that letter in Rome.

The next letter. A portion of a letter from Mark Anthony to Cicero. And its headline, Mark Anthony council. He has the power temporary. Two weeks after this letter from Cicero to Atticus, Mark Anthony sends this letter to Cicero.
Pressure of business on my side and your sudden departure have prevented me from taking this matter up with you in person. On that account I fear that my absence may carry less weight with you than my presence would. But if you're a goodness of heart proves to correspond with the opinion, I have always entertained of you, I should be very glad.
And he goes on from there. And he mentions Caesar. And this time, instead of further on the letter, instead of Julius Caesar, who was dead by now, it's another Caesar. It's the young Octavian. The future Augustus. And the young Octavian comes onto the scene and senses with his incredible finesse. And you have to understand that Octavian was really somebody. Brutal though he was in some regards. Really refined. At least in the sense of where does the center of power really lie.

And so, while Octavian is seeking to align himself with Mark Anthony and Lapidus, the second triumvirate. He reaches back for the ace in the hole. He reaches back for Cicero. And he makes this sort of appeal to Cicero that even though he has the power, he has the money, he has the army from his uncle. He doesn't really have the refinements, so he needs a teacher. And what better teacher could he have than Cicero. And he addresses Cicero as father. I will protect checked you. I will take care of you. You will educate me. We will be the real fulcrum power. And Octavian believed it. He understood it.

And it was only with great difficulty that Octavian agreed finally to have Cicerone murdered. It was only after Mark Anthony sensing that somehow Octavian with Cicero behind him would very quickly hold all the aces in the hand. And so, at a conference at a little country town that went on for three days, Mark Anthony and Octavian and all the other Generals sitting down together. Emptying bowls of grapes. Emptying cups of wine. Brushing away a tear or two for those that they were writing their names on to lists. It's known as the prescriptions. And the 200 most powerful remaining people other than themselves were added to lists. And then these lists were given out to groups of soldiers. And the soldiers went out to find the individuals and killed them. And the first name on Anthony's list was Cicero. And the last name that Octavian agreed to was Cicero. Because Cicero had become sort of a talisman. The last remaining survivor of the old Republic. The man who understood what it was all about when you quit responding to the dreams of power and the nightmares of this fearfulness. When you looked as a human being at life and mankind. Cicero still understood that. Still had that in him.

But there was a lot at stake. Octavian realizing that he had the inside track, which he did. Realizing that the impetuousness of Mark Anthony couldn't possibly last. He was still young. The other member of the second triumvirate was nothing. Nothing at all.

And so, Octavian and the third day sold his teacher out for the Empire world. They searched for Cicero. And I think the last letter that we have in here, 7th of June 44, still some months to go. “I arrived at [inaudible] before midday. Brutus was glad to see me. Then before a large company, including Servilia, Totila, Porcia, he asked me what I thought he ought to do.”
This was Brutus who had stabbed Caesar.
[inaudible] too, was present. I gave the advice I had prepared on the way that he should accept the Asiatic [inaudible] commission. I said his safety was all that concerned us now. It was the ball work of the Republic itself. I was fairly launched on this theme when Cassius walked in.
Another of the conspirators.
I repeated what I had already said, where upon Cassius looking most valorous, I assure you. The picture of a warrior. Announced that he had no intention of going to Sicily. Quote, should I have taken an insult as though it had been a favor? Quote, what do you mean to do then? I inquired. He replied that he would go to Greece. Quote, how about you Brutus? Said I. Rome he answered, if you agree. But I don't agree at all. You won't be safe there. Well supposing I could be safe, would you approve? Of course. What is more, I should be leaning against you're leaving for province either now or after your [inaudible], but I cannot advise you to risk your life in Rome. I went on to state reasons which no doubt occurred to you why he would not be safe. A deal of talk followed in which they complained. Cassius, especially about the opportunities that had been let slip. And [inaudible] came in and for severe criticism. To that I said it was no use crying over spilled milk, but I agreed all the same. And when I began to give my views on what should be done, nothing original, only what everyone was saying all the time. Not however touching on the point that someone else ought to have been dealt with. Only that they should have some in the Senate urge the popular enthusiasm to action with greater vigor assume leadership of the whole Commonwealth. Your lady friend explained, well upon my word, I never heard the line like. So, I held my tongue.
In other words, one of the ladies in the audience, they're saying I'd never heard of such a thing. [inaudible] Republic? What ever could you be talking about? And so, Cicero shut up.

And it was six months later, the men came searching for him with the warrant for his death. He had fled down to the coast of Italy. And he was collecting some goods. He thought he might go onto a ship and perhaps sail off. Maybe to Greece. He put out to sea, changed his mind and came back. Went further down the coast. Down around the beautiful landscapes of Sorento. Some serving person saw the troops coming and knew that Cicero was hurrying down one of these lanes where the trees grew, big Italian Cyprus grew so close to each other, that they seem to make an arch. Almost like a Gothic arch. And this slave that [inaudible] out there quick. And Cicero hustling down this arched lane, heard the soldiers at both sides, hustling faster. He was by now in his sixties. So, he stopped. And as Plutarch says, he leaned his head out of the carriage between the draperies and they cut it off. So, in 43 B.C., December 7th, Cicero was killed.
Wonderful paragraph in a book called Cicero and the Roman Republic. Cowell writes beautifully. He writes,
Cicero was thoroughly frightened. He had been too impressed by his own achievements as council to see the need to safeguard his positioned. He flattered himself that quote, ever since I won what I may call the splendid in a moral glory of the famous 5th of December, the day in which he had Catiline’s conspirators executed.
In other words, he was killed almost on the anniversary of that day.

“Ever since that day, I have never ceased to play my part in the Republic in the same lofty spirit.” Cowell writes,
But he had no party of his own behind him. And he had disdained to make himself indispensable to those that had secured that power in the state, which the Senate and magistrates no longer really control. Too vain and too irresolute, he had failed to take precautions to meet the political hurricane, which he had had the intelligence to see was on its way. And when it broke, he was swept before it
He, and many, many, many others.

One of the most famous series of books that Cicero did were volumes written to individuals. And in one of the most famous Ad Herennium [Rhetorica ad Herennium] [inaudible]. He has a famous section here, which became very famous in the Renaissance. It was the origin of the, the whole Hermetic movement in the, the Renaissance. The idea that memory is sort of the key to reach back and save and resuscitate man. And the art of memory became the code word of the Hermetic philosophers. And also, Robert [inaudible] theater caged around the art of memory, and it was due to Cicero.

And in Ad Herennium, when he talks about the guardian of all the parts, the guardian of all the parts of language is memory. And one of the keys of memory is that there has to be an ordering. The old Latin folksy [inaudible], there must be a focus and a place. And as long as this ordering procedure is working, the memory can be the guardian of all and bring it all back into order. And he called, he said, likewise, those who have learned mnemonics can set in backgrounds what they have heard and from these backgrounds deliberate by memory. So, that the key to training a memory and the key to the art of memory is to have a series of backgrounds, like memorize contexts, which one keeps in mind. And any information that you have you position within a background. As long as you keep track of the backgrounds and the position of the information within any one of the backgrounds and you don't confuse any of it, man may recover everything. All of it.

The murder of Cicero took away the last Republican background of Rome. He was not just the symbol. He was in fact, the individual in whom this repository of the old traditional perspective still was grounded and rooted.

And it is interesting to have it at this juncture and perhaps I should just close with it. Another quotation from Lucretius. [inaudible] apropos to this shattering of the Roman Spirit. He writes,
“Now all those things, which people say exist in hell are really present in our lives. The story says that Tantalus the wretch frozen in terror fears the massive rock balanced in air above him.” Do you see that language? Do you see the imagery? “Frozen in terror. Fears the massive rock balanced in the air above him. It's not true. What happens is that in our lives the fear, the silly vain ridiculous fear of the Gods causes our panic dread of accident.”

Accident. Fortune. The vicissitudes of fortunate. [inaudible], the Greek word, [inaudible]. The very thing that Polybius wrote in his history was to discover is there such a thing as fortunate working in his [inaudible]

“Is [inaudible] loose in our lives? Is this irrational roulette of the Gods really a part of man's life? Or do we, by our understanding and ordering make history ring out true and finally blossom full into a universal history? What really happens?” Writes Lucretius,
after having lived through this period is that in our lives, the fear, the silly vain ridiculous fear of Gods causes our panic dread of accident. We become immobilized to act because we think what if, what if, what if until we are absolutely enmeshed in what ifs nothing is done. No [inaudible] feed on [inaudible] who lies sprawled out for them in hell. They could not find in infinite eternities of time, what they're searching for and that great bulk. Nine acres wide or 90 or spread over the entire globe. No man can ever bear eternal pain. Nor give his body as food to the birds forever. We do have a [inaudible] in ourselves and lie in love, torn and consumed by our anxieties, our fickle passionate.
Well, the follow-up to it is to get the story of Caesar. The story of the man who was the last they felt who had a chance to make an order in a sense out of the situation before it exploded.

And so next week we'll look at Caesar and Cleopatra to see the same situation from the view of someone without the humanity of Cicero, without the skittishness. Someone who had the power who had the cold calculating courage. And we'll see what he did with this situation. And we'll do that next week.

END OF RECORDING